The Talawa Technique™ is an Africana Technique that gives access to the technologies of Africana dance creation. Technology is often described as the collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. This definition could also be applied to artistic creation or artistic research. I, therefore, posit that The Talawa Technique™ is a way to navigate, systemise and access the many skills, methods, processes and techniques that are found in the practices of Africana dance production. Many of these practices are “poly”/multi-layered. I will here attempt to peel back some more of these layers to reveal the technologies that the Talawa Technique™ systemises and makes available.
In this section, I will unpack the rhythmic concepts at the core of the technique and posit them as possible offerings to the broader Africana dance field as a way to discuss and analyse our dance practices. I will in my explanations favour the perspective of the dance practitioner and or choreographer. First I will give a working understanding of two Musical Rhythmic Concepts: poly-rhythm and poly-metre. Then I will layout approaches to Visual Representation of Rhythm organised under the two categories of Rhythmic Creationand Rhythmic Representation.Four activities fall under these umbrellas: 1)Second Rattle Mode(2)The Percussive Body, (3)Collaborative Direction of Sound and Movement, and (4)Optic Rhythm. I then go on to explain how the individualised interpretation of these elements shape Rhythmic Personality, facilitate Rhythmic Competition, and how these can be used to Vitalise the Ghost. The following section deals with Rhythm Physicsdescribed through the three concepts Rhythmic Momentum and Rhythmic Coordination and Rhythmic Capacity as a way to understand the technical and physical uses of rhythm in movement quality. I then move on to present the concept of Rhythm Reception as a way to analyse how our rhythmic output is received and perceived. I do this through the concepts of Rhythmic Value and Rhythmic Capital. I lastly move on to describe all of the above as our Rhythmic Investment through which reception and affect determines our dance/choreographic works Rhythmic Power. These are the multiple concepts around rhythm and movement that have been developed over my 25 years of teaching and developing the Talawa Technique and the accompanying approach to rhythm and rhythmic movement.